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Sunrise 20m CW POTA now

Leisurely sunrise CW POTA at Lackawanna State Park. Slow on 20m but I did get 12 Qs and a couple DX (the goal. Had a DL an M0 station that faded out on me. Ic7200, 20m vertical, 20W, homebrew sideswiper. Beautiful morning.

Today’s forecast for the endless mountains region of NEPA was 93 and sunny. What actually happened is 73 with 1.5 inch of rain. Not the worst weather in the world but definitely the most unpredictable.

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Bands were packed with CW OPs. Hunted for a bit on one of the clubs 20m stations. Tough going at first. High speed OPs with another N3EP station on 20m SSB. The key for me was to listen for a bit, collect the OPs call, class and region first then TX. Fun first FD experience.

Off I go. Should be on air at US-1368 in 30.

Another leisurely activation. Bands were quiet. Guess everyone was burned out from FD or had weather to deal with. 11 Qs on 40m CW. 20 was also quiet and yielded 0 Qs. Plenty of wildlife and the usual 0700 dog walkers. Beautiful day to POTA, but aren’t they all.

Rural living is the simple pleasure of sitting in the patio swing in my skivies after string trimming 1.5 miles of trail.

Bought one of these today. Can’t wait to build my own portable touch keyboard!! Morse Code Capacitive Touch Key Circuit Board a.co/d/0qF6UDD

This morning’s shack. Come get me on 40.

Called CQ on 20 for 15 min. No joy. 24Qs on 40. Another beautiful sunrise, 65F, ducks woodchucks and rabbits. IC7200, WRC TIA mini and 213” whip, SpeedX straight key at 20W.

Some CW wonder happened this morning. Decided to skip POTA and do some more 25WPM QSO practice. Was copying about 50% while watering plants. Suddenly realized I was now getting 80%. Even better when I get primers like TEMP, ANT, PWR, etc. Still struggling with names though.

Really nice sunrise POTA. Called CQ on 20 for 15 min with no joy. 18 Qs on 40. All QRP CW except a couple CW hunts. Had a blue heron supervising from a dead tree and the usual morning dog walkers. Finished up with an intermittent dit connection on my key but I got through it.

I have been a long time EFHW user. It has proven to be a versatile antenna with great band flexibility. Lately I have been using my Wolf River Coils 213” whip with a silver bullet mini for dawn POTA. It sets up and tears down so quickly that I think I’m forgetting something.

I don’t repost a lot of stuff, but this is an awesome story!!!! Thanks Jim "Ham on a Bike" for sharing.